FREE to veterans and family
“It is not unusual in human beings who have witnessed the sack of a city or the falling to pieces of a people”—explains the narrator of Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier—“to desire to set down what they have witnessed for the benefit of unknown heirs or of generations infinitely remote; or, if you please, just to get the sight out of their heads.” The Inprint Veterans Writing Workshop provides military veterans and the family of military veterans a place to communicate these stories. Organized into weekly hour-and-a-half sessions, the workshop will walk students through the art of the personal essay, short fiction, and poetry. The sessions will include in-class exercises to help students start writing; close analysis of veteran essayists, novelists, and poets to reveal the ways in which accomplished writers refine and craft their experiences; student and instructor workshop feedback to assist with post-workshop writing and revision; and conversations with published Houston veteran authors about the writing process and possible routes to publication. The focus will be on the participants’ work and the group’s supportive and constructive responses to it. It is hoped that each session will facilitate what Philip Lopate in The Art of the Personal Essay calls “the secret promise of an infinite opening out” while maintaining fidelity to authentic military experience—in other words, students will learn how to not only “set down” their military experiences, but also craft them for the enjoyment and edification of others. Writing your stories can be a transformative experience. No prior writing experience is needed, just a passion for good stories.